Revisiting Tiong Bahru Bakery @ Raffles City

Been a while since we were last at Tiong Bahru Bakery - mostly because I never liked what I had that much from them previously. Menu's updated a little since.

There's a coconut pandan financier (for SG61) and another one with hazelnuts. Pleasantly surprised that both these were kinda nice. They were buttery enough and I liked the pandan infusion from the former that wasn't overshadowed by coconut. Also liked that saltiness we were tasting from the hazelnut one.

Pretty pleasant custard-y canele.

Found a cream shio pan - gotta admit that I rather liked it. It's a little different from the one from Noci Bakehouse. Something about the cream maybe.

Okay-ish houjicha latte. This one was actually kinda smooth going down and a little more milky rather than a more robust tea flavour I was hoping for.

Yeastside, Somerset

Been wanting to come to Yeastside (#01-02, 10A Exeter Road) since their first setup at King Albert Park. Yes it's been that long.

Their Caulihummus was delicious. Roasted/torched cauliflower on hummus with pomegranate flavoured with cumin and honey. 

Liked their Foursome With Honey pizza - there's fior di latte, cheddar, parmesan and blue cheese. Don't know which kind of blue cheese it was but it was adequate and that much cannot be said of many pizzas that claim to have them.

Crust's not bad, but the cornicione didn't seem to be as good (combination of chew, puffiness and aroma) as what one can get from Casa Vostra or the defunct Zazz Pizza.

Ramen Shoshiji, Orchard Plaza

If one were in the know, Ramen Shoshiji (#03-42 Orchard Plaza, 150 Orchard Road) is a buzz about town now. What they bring to the table is a never seen before (at least for me) ginger shoyu ramen. The standard bowls on menu here appear to be said ginger shoyu and a Hakata tonkotsu. There's also tori paitan, Iekei and Jiro styled on rotation based on availability.

Availability is determined by updates on their IG.

Tried their pork shumai. These were huge, freshly steamed, moist on the insides and tender. Nice. 👍🏼

We were given plate with a smudge of mustard for the shumai. I enjoyed the pairing.

The other condiment(s) which worked with the shumai are the doubanjiang or doubanjiang with garlic.

I'm typically not a ginger person but I thought the broth from their ginger shoyu ramen rocked. This bowl was with extra ginger. Brought about a nice bit of prickle at the back of the throat. Did not expect to take to it but I ended up liking it and being amazed by myself enjoying it.

The Hakata tonkotsu bowl was somewhat more pedestrian. There seemed to be an underlying sweetness in the broth which I preferred without. Charshu's lean-ish. Nothing particularly special about this.

Interestingly, they have a wider range of hardness for their Hakata tonkotsu noodles than the other ramen-ya around. I got the ultra hard which wasn't very hard at all.

Kucina, Food Republic @ 313

This was just bad. 👎🏼

This was their cheese wheel pasta - was pretty surprised that there was so much cream in it. That cheese wheel was just a gimmick because there wasn't much cheese flavour. It's obviously mostly cream. Tasted cheap. Couldn't even discern the black pepper in it.  

Meatball had a mushy texture and tasted floury. There were a lot of fillers in them and did not taste good.

We're generally against food wastage but it infuriated me thinking that I'd have to swallow these so as not to waste food. We didn't finish it. Will not be coming back. 👎🏼

Delhi Lahori, Tekka Food Centre

Delhi Lahori (#01-266 Tekka Market & Food Centre, 665 Buffalo Road) among the eats at Tekka Market has landed itself a Michelin Bib Gourmand which piqued my curiosity. A bunch of the stuff from the stall weren't available at the opening hour when we were there. So I ended up with chapati and keema. Latter's spicy packed a bit of heat with nicely flavoured minced mutton. It's more watery than I thought though.

A few days later......

Fish tikka - very tender and salty. Not smokey like I imagined them to be.

Some naan with dal and palak paneer. Both the lentils and spinach were unexpectedly spicy - not bad tasting as gravies/dips went. Cheese naan was sadly not so cheesy. Kashmiri naan tasted generic with maraschino cherry, raisins and some unidentifiable bits of nuts.

Taste Ipoh, Raffles City

Some food from Taste Ipoh (#B1-81 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road). As the name of the eatery would suggest, they're doing Ipoh styled food and according to them, the menu's a "celebration of Ipoh's culinary heritage".

Tried their crispy poh piah which has dried shrimp (hae bi) flavour in it. We like this rendition better than the one from Auntie Mei's Crispy Popiah even though it didn't have as much crunchy bits. Did have more sweet sauce and was more competently wrapped.

That's something called Fragrant Spicy Dry Curry Chicken (Varuval) Bee Hoon Mee - not bad. Not understanding the 'varuval' part in the name but I'm guessing it's got to do with the chicken. Texture from the noodles were pleasantly firm and we kinda enjoyed the dark gravy flavoured with curry from the "dry curry" chicken.

Pretty good tasting Ipoh white kopi c. Coffee's fairly robust with adequate fragrance.